Folding tables are known in which one or more, usually four, legs are foldably mounted to the underside of a table; card tables are usually of this general type, as are banquet or picnic tables designed to be put up and taken down frequently. Many mechanisms are known for providing the desired folding action; these are often rather complex and expensive. One simple, inexpensive system for these purposes provides a horizontal shaft to which one end of the leg structure is secured, which shaft is journalled in a simple band secured to the underside of the table. Appropriate over-center devices may be used with such a journal-mounted system to lock the leg structure in its folded and unfolded positions.
It is also known to provide one or more "bumpers", usually four, which extend downwardly with respect to the underside of the table top, to contact another table or other structure which the table may bear against when not in use. For example, when such tables are folded and stacked on top of each other, they will then only be contacted by the bumpers of other tables, thus minimizing marring; in addition, in some cases the bumpers are of high-friction elastomeric material so as to restrain relative lateral motion of the tables when stacked, thus contributing to the stability of the stack, especially when the stack is moved about. In many cases the bumpers are located on the corners of the frame of the table. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,604,372 of O. C. Hewett there is shown use of a finger pad on each movable strut of a rather complicated pivot structure used in folding and unfolding the four table legs; while this is not its primary function, the finger pad can be used as a "bumper".
While operative for their basic purposes, such arrangements of the prior art have involved relatively complex and expensive apparatus for providing the requisite folding and bumpering functions.
It is an object of the present invention to provide apparatus which provides for the folding and unfolding of the legs of a table and which provides the desired protection against marring and sideways slippage as well, while being especially simple and inexpensive to make and assemble.